No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 144

I now realized that the words people often say, “It’s okay to break down,” were not just empty words of comfort.

Until now, showing weakness in front of others has only brought me pain throughout my life. If you roll broken glass in your mouth, it bleeds. That’s natural, and the moments when it was revealed that I was broken also left sharp wounds on me.

So no matter what, I didn’t want to collapse. Because all the shocks that shattered me so far remained as pain.

If the person trying to destroy me was none other than you, I felt like I wouldn’t even leave a trace.

But at this moment, I was not afraid of breaking down.

Rather, I was glad that I could break down in front of you.

Was it because I knew you wouldn’t shatter me? Was it because the tears flowing from you seeped into the tattered cracks of my torn heart and conveyed a kind warmth?

‘If it’s you, you’ll embrace me as I am…’

While I was crying suffocatingly, Ryuseong was hugging me and constantly speaking as if chanting a spell.

It’s okay. It’s okay. Everything will be fine. Everything will be alright.

So I come to have the unfounded belief that I will be alright. Because you said it will be alright.

To me, you are magic, a miracle, and an irreplaceable light. So I will probably be alright. Someday I will be able to fall into quiet peace.

Therefore, we had to survive.

Ahwoooooo!

I only noticed the smell of blood outside the cave when my crying stopped. And from the next moment on, an insane number of demons and assassins began to be caught within the radius I could sense.

We had to face the enemies trying to kill me. Only then could we survive.

‘…No, is that really the only way?’

At that moment, my mind started spinning tightly.

“Ryuseong.”

I started off like Jeong Ian and twisted one side of my lips up like Jeong Ian.

Somehow, I felt like I could do it in front of you.

“Can you follow me in that state?”

“…Wait and see. Let’s see who’s the last one standing.”

“Then shall we make a bet? The loser becomes the slave?”

“…”

The genius mind of Jeong Ian, widely known for being wicked, was spinning…

***

Now let’s go back to before Cassice Demillang fell from the cliff and take a look inside the bizarre mansion.

1st floor, there is a huge chessboard.

The gloomy black and white chessboard is flaunting its grandeur the size of a person. It’s quite a unique taste for a place where a subgroup meeting of the Blood Clan takes place.

2nd floor. There are people looking down at the chessboard.

Everyone holding opera glasses is wearing a mask. Over that, they are wearing different handkerchiefs or veils. Some have pinned fragrant corsages as accessories to fix the veil, while others have pinned sweet-smelling human hand bones.

It may feel absurd that there is a rule to cover one’s face at a family gathering.

But they all follow their rules without exception.

Because that is the Demillang way.

The land where black fog clusters becomes a kind of field. A field means a space optimized for demons.

The black fog is the main culprit that taints pure energy into demonic energy and drops the world into the pit of evil. Not to mention the Black Wilderness, the origin of the black fog.

The moment Cassice Demillang is dropped into the Black Light, he dies.

Therefore, it was a foolish act to even install detection magic in the chess game played by the head and the chairman. Not only does magic not work well near the field, but the act itself had a big risk.

However, the long-standing Demillang family has ancient sorcery that they use instead of magic.

A woman with red hair and a platinum mask who fiddled with a strand of hair and laughed condescendingly turned around and said,

“Hmm, this is a good medium. You planted the sharp-toothed mouse well. What’s its name?”

“You want me to tell you when I’m going to throw it away?”

“Well, no. If you’re going to throw it away…”

There were reasons for having Georges Bongtang disguise as Logan Esteban and steal Cassice Demillang’s hair during the field trip. Some elders were hoping that the life-weary Georges Bongtang would excitingly grab Cassice Demillang’s hair, but the cowardly rat dug through the streets Cassice Demillang walked on instead of bringing his hair. The strange thing was that despite Georges Bongtang blabbering about hating Cassice Demillang, he got excited just by receiving a glance from Cassice Demillang. It occurred to me that perhaps the reason Georges Bongtang hates Cassice Demillang is because he mistakenly thought his first love was betrayed on his own.

Anyway, sorcery is different from magic. Especially ancient sorcery that can handle mysteries is even more so. Unlike the systematic magic that realizes effects by connecting [words] in series or parallel, sorcery is closer to a massive wandering that depends on the caster’s senses. That’s why good sorcerers are rare. A good sorcerer must have great genius or resonance ability to find a single path in an absurdly vast map that doesn’t make sense.

Therefore, good sorcerers are special. The one who kissed the strand of Cassice Demillang’s hair to be used as a medium, the woman with red hair and a platinum mask, was none other than a rare and greatly accomplished sorcerer.

“Now. Go find your master.”

When the breath of ‘Romanov’ was blown in, the inanimate chess pieces moved on their own.

Tap. Tap. Tap. The pieces go back and forth on the huge chessboard. Thud. Thud. Thud. The captured pieces smash themselves. Rip. Rip. Rip. Tear apart and annihilate.

The activated ancient mystery was informing which piece dies, which piece makes what move.

And, the highlight.

When the fall of Cassice Demillang was finally announced.

“Oh my. This has become troublesome… We had a family gathering with a vow of victory, but for the child to suffer a misfortune…”

The chairman of the council of elders, who wore a corsage on his mask like an actor, began to smoothly lead the conversation.

It’s a strong lineup to simply call it a family gathering, but the youngest among them was at least Cassice Demillang’s grandfather’s age.

In short, it meant the council of elders had gathered.

The elders of Demillang are ultimately half-ghosts who have aged but haven’t matured, living immaturely.

There was only one reason these old men, who would have been pursuing their own pleasures with slaughter and dirty taste plays if the chairman hadn’t called, walked so grandiosely.

It was to watch the chess game between the head and the chairman.

Even though Cassice Demillang, on whom the chairman just bet, had fallen.

“What’s there to regret? You’ll be the one regretting, elder brother. I find it fun now that he’s dead. Did you see it just now? Him bawling. It was damn satisfying to see.”

“Why are you talking like that, big brother? Do you know how much effort I put into that thing? If he died so meaninglessly like that, at least show some courtesy to express regret.”

Anyway, once he fell into the Black Wilderness, Cassice Demillang would die. Even more so because the head had finished the preliminary work to prevent rescue.

***

Until he was arrested and treated as a criminal by Hyang and other academy students after pushing Cassice Demillang off the cliff, Georges Bongtang wasn’t scared at all.

Rather, he burst into laughter. No matter what anyone says, surely Demillang will save him!

‘Then, surely Cassice Demillang will also be under me…!’

But when the professors came rushing in, he began to feel something strange.

The professors asked Georges Bongtang if he was crazy. Georges Bongtang had merely made a practical choice to pay back the humiliation he suffered at the entrance ceremony.